Ready to give up after your first direct-mail piece yielded no results? AARE Director of Acquisitions and Resales, Rob Reutzel shares that marketing is a numbers game that requires persistence and patience.

The average response rate for direct mail is 2-3% AND that number increases exponentially with each subsequent “touch” or communication from you, so follow up, follow up, FOLLOW UP!

Consistency for at least 12 months is key. So don’t give up and fail forward fast. Watch Rob’s video for more:

Let’s just get one thing straight — anyone who’s in the real estate business — whether they’ve done one, 100, or perhaps hasn’t even completed their first deal yet — we’ve all experienced REJECTION.

And not just a solid “NO.” LOTS of stuff like this:

“Who the *%#! are you?? How did you get my number? I’m calling the cops!” or,

“I would have to be an absolute buffoon to accept that offer. Who do you think you’re dealing with?” and my personal favorite,

“I’ve got a 9mm pistol with your name written all over it if you contact me again.”

Yikes! And then there’s the WORST kind of NO — the one that disguises itself as a YES — which you only uncover after hours and possibly days of follow up — sometimes EVEN AFTER you have a signed contract — where the seller just drops off the face of the Earth. In fact, we just had a deal where the sellers, after responding to our marketing and weeks of follow-up, finally agreed to meet, knowing they had to act before the foreclosure auction date. They didn’t use e-mail, and instead required us to drive to their home (about 40 minutes each way, ALWAYS in rush hour) 3 separate times, to get paperwork signed. And after we got it all signed? Nothing. They stopped replying to calls, e-mails, etc. Frustrating.

Or there’s the 6-unit building I had under agreement, all set to close the next day. The seller was one of those who owned the building free and clear, and just wanted enough to buy a trailer and live off the grid where he could prepare for the apocalypse. He wanted NO US dollars at closing — instead, we had to pay him $15K in gold coins that ONLY “Jeffrey down the street at ABC Coin Store can git, dropped in a paper bag with my name on it.” My closing attorney laughed, but we had it all set to go — until 3 hours before the closing, when he had a mental breakdown and threatened to kill his tenants and himself if we moved forward with the closing. Needless to say, I rarely hold people to contracts when they are that extreme.

It happens. We’re in a sensitive business, one where people are coming from all facets and stages of life — elderly folks looking to move into assisted living, divorcing couples who hate each other, children of recently deceased parents who are being bombarded with marketing and spam, people who love THINGS instead of people and collect items that fill up every room of their home to fill the empty void in their hearts and souls (worse – it could be CATS!), etc. and so on.

The question becomes how do we, as real estate problem solvers and marketers, KEEP GOING after hearng NO, experiencing REJECTION time and again, and then having deals that explode and turn into big wastes of time and effort? How do we keep going to that NEXT call back, helping that NEXT person who needs us when it’s almost CERTAIN we’ll be stomped on again and again?

Whoa! Did you feel the weight of what I just wrote? [Moment of silence.]

Ok, first, you need to remember that NEW SELLERS HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR LAST CALL/VISIT. Every single one of them has their own unique problem or reason for calling YOU. It’s up to YOU to find out WHY they need your services — and do NOT transfer the energy from any previous negative dealings into a new call or visit.

Imagine if your phone was completely flooded with calls, so that when one seller swears at you and makes you take them off your list, you need to let them go because you have another call coming in from a legitimate person who has already accepted their situation and they know they need you??

Different ballgame, right?

In any event, friends, be it real estate or any other business, we are in the sales business, and we need to smile and hold our heads up high the entire time. Sometimes the only thing we’ll have to rely on is our vision — our vision of helping sellers and the neighborhoods we’re investing in, the vision of our business we want to share with the community, and our vision of bettering our own lives and families — our businesses and missions are bigger and deeper than any amount of NOs or rejection we could go through.

And remember, if you’re here and doing this business as you should, you should feel MORALLY and ETHICALLY obligated to share your services because of how much good they are providing in your local communities. This is another reason why I treasure positive testimonials from my sellers and neighbors so much — when times get tough, THEY keep me going.

You got this. Wipe the sweat, blood, and tears from your face, and keep on changing lives.

About AARE Group

We are a real estate acquisition, sales and management company dedicated to helping homeowners solve problems and seeing hidden value while serving investors and leaving neighborhoods better than we found them, since 2005. We do this by buying, selling, and managing single-family and multi-family homes — 150 redevelopment deals and over 50 rental units in New England, Pennsylvania and Florida.